Abstract
Access to clean drinking water remains a pressing public health challenge in the United States, particularly in the Midwest where agricultural pollution continues to degrade water quality. This paper discusses scientific literature, long-term monitoring data, and recent case studies to examine how modern agricultural practices, especially intensive fertilizer and pesticide use in corn–soybean systems, drive contamination of drinking water with nitrates and pesticides. Focusing on the Midwest, the paper highlights the growing human health risks, economic burdens on water utilities and rural communities, and the failure of existing voluntary edge-of-field mitigation strategies to achieve meaningful improvements at scale. The solution is a transition toward in-field, system-level solutions such as cover crops, diversified crop rotations, perennial systems, and organic management, which have consistently shown substantial reductions in nitrate and pesticide pollution while improving soil health and farm resilience. Ultimately, safeguarding drinking water will require policy reforms and investments that enable farmers to adopt proven practices that protect both community health and long-term sustainability.
1) Introduction
Access to clean water is a fundamental human right and in 2010 it was recognized as such by the UN General Assembly, but across the world 1 in 4 people still lack this basic human necessity (United Nations, 2024). However, polluted water is not just a problem for developing countries, across the United States there are numerous examples of water pollution affecting the health of people in communities across this country. Historically in the USA, water was polluted from industrial contaminants and the Clean Water Act was enacted to regulate “point sources” or known sources of pollution. “Non-point sources” are still contaminating streams, lakes, estuaries and drinking wells and existing government policies to reduce non-point pollution have not led to improvements in water quality (Tomczyk et al., 2023). The top non-point sources of pollution leading to impairment of water bodies in the US are sediment, nutrients, and chemicals coming from agriculture (EPA 2025). Pesticides and nitrates pose serious health risks to those living in agricultural areas or downstream from where they are applied and are two of the primary risk factors contributing to Iowa’s cancer rate which is increasing and is the 2nd highest in the country (Iowa Environmental Council & Harkin Institute, 2026).
2) Pesticides
Pesticides that are endocrine disruptors or known/suspected carcinogens are commonly found in surface water or other drinking water sources. Neonicotinoids are the most widespread insecticide in agricultural systems and are used as seed coatings on the majority of corn and soybeans planted in the Midwest. Neonicotinoids are highly water-soluble insecticides that disrupt soil food webs (Tooker & Pearsons, 2021), and harm aquatic ecosystems when they leach into surface water (Mamy et al., 2025). Neonicotinoids in drinking water sources increase the risks of birth defects in humans (NRDC, 2021). Despite their widespread prevalence and health risks, research has shown them to have little economic benefit to the farmer (Mourtzinis et al., 2019). The herbicide atrazine, a toxin that has been linked to early on-set lung and prostate cancer, as well as being a known endocrine disruptor linked to birth defects and fertility problems, (Galbiati et al., 2021; Center for Biological Diversity, 2025) is the most commonly detected pesticide in drinking water since it is highly mobile and persistent. Every year, 40 million Americans drink water with measurable levels of this contaminant even though it is banned in most other modernized, industrial countries (Donley, 2019). In conventional no-till systems that rely on intensive herbicide applications, higher concentrations of atrazine are found throughout the soil profile because of improved hydrological properties in the no-till soils and 3-9% of the applied amount is transported through the soil profile, eventually contaminating drinking water supplies (Hall et al., 1989). Glyphosate is the most common herbicide used in the United States and its use has risen 15-fold since the inception of genetically modified herbicide tolerant crops (Benbrook, 2012, 2016). Glyphosate is now in over 70% of all water samples collected across the United States, including rain (Battaglin et al., 2014), and is found in over 80% of all Americans surveyed (Ospina et al., 2022). Glyphosate and other pesticides have recently been associated with increased cancer rates in major agricultural regions that are on par with the risk of smoking (Gerken et al., 2024). However, pesticides are not the only contaminants in drinking water that are causing cancer and every year over 12,000 new cancer cases can be attributed to nitrate pollution in water, with agricultural runoff being the primary source of nitrate in the water (EWG, 2019).
3) Nitrate Leaching
In 2025, the impact of nitrate pollution in drinking water came to the forefront in the backyard of Rodale Institute’s Midwest Organic Center (Marion, IA), with Iowa front and center in national headlines (AP, 2025), so this paper will focus on this urgent problem in the Midwest. Nitrate contamination of drinking water is one of the most persistent water quality challenges in agricultural regions of the United States, particularly in the rainy, tile-drained landscapes of the Midwest. In 2025, this problem was further highlighted by lawn watering bans due to drinking water shortages in Iowa’s largest urban center, Des Moines. Even though Des Moines Water Works has one of the most sophisticated nitrate removal systems in the entire world, it could not provide enough clean water when its freshwater sources (the Des Moines and Racoon River) contained almost twice the regulated limit of nitrate (10 mg/L limit) (Iowa Capital Dispatch, 2025). A recent scientific review from Polk County (Des Moines, IA) attributed 80% of these nitrates to upstream agricultural sources such as nitrogen fertilizer and manure (Polk County, 2025). In 2026, unusually high levels of nitrate in freshwater sources during the winter caused nitrate removal to begin in January for the first time since 2015 (Iowa Public Radio, 2026) and by the end of April, data from the Iowa Water Quality Information System estimates that over 100 million pounds of nitrogen will have entered freshwater sources in Iowa this year alone. Smaller rural communities are most affected by this nitrate contamination because they lack the resources needed to treat the water when faced with chronic contamination, forcing residents to rely on bottled water or unsafe taps for extended periods (Investigate Midwest, 2026). Across the Midwest this water pollution is becoming more common with increasing climate variability leading to heavy rain events following drought years that accentuate an existing problem. These significant rain events now routinely flush accumulated nitrate into rivers and aquifers, pushing many private wells and municipal systems across the region above EPA limits and highlighting the link between nitrate exposure to serious long-term health risks (Civil Eats, 2024a; KCUR, 2023; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 2024; Nebraska Public Media, 2024).
Long-term monitoring has shown that nitrate losses from cropland are driven primarily by root-zone leaching and export through shallow groundwater or tile drainage rather than by surface runoff alone. In these regions, applied inorganic fertilizer and manure nitrogen are readily converted to nitrate in the soil. This highly mobile/soluble form of nitrogen is transported through the soil profile and is exported via tile drains and groundwater outlets. As a result, nitrate delivery to streams and drinking water is difficult to address solely through improved efficiency of nitrogen applications (Jones, Nielsen, et al., 2018; Sanford & Pope, 2013). Multi-decade datasets show that nitrate trends have worsened in many Midwestern watersheds despite widespread promotion and incentives for best management practices and state investments in Nutrient Reduction strategies. Research has shown that the quantity and source of nitrogen are the greatest culprits and what is needed are in-field management strategies, such as cover crops, living mulches, and perennial plants, that directly reduce the pool of nitrate vulnerable to leaching in order to significantly reduce nitrate loads to surface water (Jones, Schilling, et al., 2018).
4) Cover Crops
Research increasingly points to the limitations of relying solely on nitrogen efficiency measures, such as small adjustments in fertilizer rate or timing, to achieve meaningful nitrate reductions. In tile-drained landscapes, nitrate loads correspond strongly to drainage intensity and the size of off-season nitrate pools (applying anhydrous ammonia or manure in the fall contribute to these pools). As a result, management practices such as cover crops that actively capture or immobilize nitrogen outside the main growing season, or that reduce the length of the susceptible window for leaching, are increasingly viewed as essential components of effective nitrate mitigation strategies (Kaspar et al., 2012; Shrestha et al., 2023a). Among the most robust and consistently documented approaches to reducing nitrate losses are winter cover crops, particularly cereal rye. Long-term plot and farm studies report nitrate load reductions of approximately 20–55% in corn–soybean rotations when rye is integrated as a cover crop, with variability across sites largely explained by differences in cover crop biomass driven by planting date, climate, and tile drainage hydraulics (Kaspar et al., 2012).
5) Edge of Field Practices
Edge-of-field practices such as bioreactors, grass waterways, saturated buffers, and controlled drainage, that are intended to limit soil nutrients and sediment from entering streams, are a prominent part of Iowa’s Nutrient Reduction Strategy. They can remove nitrate effectively in some situations, but effectiveness is highly variable and range from an 8-84% nitrate reductions by saturated buffers alone (Jaynes & Isenhart, 2019). These edge of field practices have been promoted as a success in reducing nitrate loads across the state but in reality, the evidence shows they are structurally constrained, insufficient at watershed scale in Iowa, and less effective than reported (NPR, 2024). Field studies find that saturated buffers and bioreactors can be effective at reducing nitrate loads under ideal conditions, yet effective performance depends on the residence time of nitrate in the buffer and the proportion of total drainage intercepted, limits that become overwhelmed during the heavy rain events common in tile-drained landscapes (Jaynes & Isenhart, 2019). Based on assessments of saturated buffers already installed, it would take 11,000 buffers to remove 1% of Iowa’s nitrate load but as of 2024, the state has installed less than 200 (NPR, 2024). Even optimistic deployment of saturated buffers would remove only a sliver of Iowa’s annual nitrate load, illustrating why reliance on edge-of-field practices cannot substitute for in-field reductions of off-season nitrate availability via winter cover crops, diversified crop rotations, and adoption of in-field management changes at scale (Civil Eats, 2024b), such as transitioning farmland to organic.
6) Crop Rotations
In Iowa and across the Corn Belt, crop rotations are a relic of the past with most farms practicing a simple alternation between corn and soybeans. However, some farms still completely forgo this fundamental agricultural practice, and continuous corn comprises 20-25% of the crop land in the corn belt (millions of acres), a practice that is also a major source of greenhouse gas emissions (NO2) due to the intensive nitrogen fertilization needed to continuously grow corn (EWG, 2025). Even a simplistic alternation of corn and soybeans can reduce nitrate leaching by roughly 25% compared with continuous corn (Shrestha et al., 2023b). Crop rotations that include small grains, diverse cover crops, and/or perennials are a prominent solution for reducing nitrate leaching by spreading nitrogen demand more evenly across growing seasons and enhancing biological nitrogen capture. However, implementation of actual crop rotations is hampered by a lack of viable markets for alternative crops in a system dominated by the overproduction of corn destined for volatile commodity markets that are propped up by government subsidies and regulations (Renewable Fuel Standard). Long-term research at Iowa State using 4-year crop rotations shows that nitrate concentrations under corn in this longer rotation were significantly less than nitrate concentrations under corn in the typical 2-year crop rotation (Tomer & Liebman, 2014). Despite these longer rotations growing less corn and soybeans over 4 years, they did not result in decreased profitability across the rotation because the rotations needed 6-10 times less herbicides and 80% less nitrogen fertilizer which altogether led to 200 times less freshwater toxicity than the 2-year rotations (Davis et al., 2012).
7) Organic Management
Organic agriculture can contribute to nitrate reduction by optimizing nitrogen cycling within agroecosystems and utilizing fertilizer with less mobile forms of nitrogen. Over the first four years of a conventional field transitioning to organic, there are reductions in the populations of nitrifying bacteria, so less nitrogen is transformed into the highly mobile nitrate form in the soil (Price et al., 2025) which reduces the fraction of nitrogen present as nitrate during periods susceptible to leaching (Breza & Grandy, 2025). Farm level and regional scale studies indicate that organic rotations exhibit lower nitrate leaching than conventional systems (Benoit et al., 2016). The long-term Farming Systems Trial at Rodale Institute (Kutztown, PA) found a 50% cumulative reduction in nitrate leaching in two organic grain cropping systems compared to a conventional system (Drinkwater et al., 1998). A similar organic-conventional comparison conducted by the USDA at Iowa State University Agronomy Research Station (Boone, IA) found similar results, with a perennial pasture system resulting in the least amount of nitrate leaching (Cambardella et al., 2015). However, yield-scaled outcomes in organic-conventional comparisons can be more variable, emphasizing that proper regenerative organic management with effective crop rotations, proper timing of legume termination, and cover crops play a more decisive role than the organic label itself (Benoit et al., 2014). But in general, organic management, even when scaled to yield, results in a system that more effectively retains nitrogen in the soil and therefore, less nitrate in our ground and surface waters.
8) Conclusion
Protecting drinking water in the Midwest requires shifting from incremental fertilizer efficiency measures and edge-of-field band aids to transformative agricultural practices that directly reduce the pool of nitrate vulnerable to leaching. Long-term studies and water monitoring across the United States clearly indicate that a shift to organic farming can be a prominent solution that leads to reductions in chemical and fertilizer pollution in water since most of these contaminants and highly mobile fertilizer sources are not allowed in certified organic production. If a farmer is not inclined to make that investment into organic management, other strategies such as winter cover crops, diversified crop rotations, and perennial pasture systems consistently deliver meaningful, durable reductions in nitrate losses while improving soil health and the long-term resilience of our agricultural systems. At a time when nitrate pollution and weather extremes are converging to threaten public and ecological health, a more ambitious approach is urgently needed. A recent poll in Iowa showed that 79% of Iowans believe it is now time to regulate agricultural pollution in our state (Inside Climate News, 2026) because voluntary nutrient reduction practices have yielded no improvements. Ensuring safe, clean water for all communities will depend on policies and investments that accelerate adoption of these proven, system-level solutions that allow farmers to get off the input treadmill and enable them to adopt management practices that are better for farmers, farmland, and the health of their communities. It is time for an agricultural system that embraces management practices that align ecological function with agricultural productivity and supports farmers who want to grow healthy food for people again. Because only then can we break this cycle of contamination and build a future where clean water is not an exception, but a guarantee. But for now, our only guarantee if we continue down this path is polluted water and increasing cancer rates in our Midwestern communities.
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